The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-12-15
So LONDONDERRY THURSDAY, DECEMBER Is, 1887

NO man could hold him blamablo if he
should bear these first to place OF
safety
Yet the path by the ridge was not the
direct one to the factory settlements.
Should he turn aside, there were hun
dreds of lives further down to be put in
peril. When Jonah was sent to Nine
veh what had been counted for him in
the scale against the salvation of city
of peoploa What if the lives of Janet
and the child were more to him than
the lives of the scores OF neighbors and
friends for whom God had commissioned
him to make this sacrilicca
as the servant better than his Lord
that he should refuse to pay the price
demanded for the ransom of the manyp
The words were thought rather than
spoken as he dashed past his home.
Every muscle he was straining to the
utmost, but there were those about tho
mills who, marking his frantic gestures,
came running to learn Of him what they
| portcndcd.
"Thc lake, the lake! Fly, fym was
the half articulatc cry they caught from
his lips.
A wave of his hand toward the creek
filling tho mill wheels interpreted the
dircful cry. From mouth to mouth it
flew. There was a hurrying to and fro,
and gathering of treasures in hot haste.
Messengers of warning galloped along
the doomed valley. The weak, the old,
were seen climbing the heights.
Dwight's sacrifice had not been vain;
but, his duty done, he had turned back
to see if, haply, he might yet save his
own treasures. The torrent was leaping
against, and tearing at the abutments of
the bridge as he rcclcd across it, and
with spent strength elm bed the path to
the cottage. Through the door he had
glimpse of Janet with the child era
died in her arms, and above the roar of
the torrent he could hear the mother
grooming her lullaby.
'Max, Max! Oh my dear, what is
it2' He lay across the threshold ex-
hausted. She stepped past him to the
porch. Below the cliff the Otter was
pounding the bridges supports. She
had seen the stream as high once be-
fore, though. What was it Max feared2
A sound reached her as she waited.
The detonation, sharply distinct, came
from distance, but was Immediately
followed by horrible crunching and
grinding, producing quivering in the
ather about her. In the same instant,
almost, she beheld, far up the Divide, a
white wall rise up from earth to heaven !;
it was as cliffs escarpment, scooped
and bowed over, and, ponderous as it
appeared, it was bearing down the gap
at terrific speed. Janot's face blanchei,
but it was brave smile she gave her
husband as she lifted him into the
room, and closed the door.
II know what it is, Max" she whis-
pered as she sat down by him, with the
child in her arms, and tendcrly raised
his head to her lap; 'it will not be hard
for us to brave death together"
The roar stupefcd their senses; the
ridgo shook to its foundations; the
house quivered like an aspen, as tor
rent descended upon it, and pool of
water, churned to froth, gathered
about the group They sat still, unheed-
ing. What time the work of destruc-
tion was wrought they knew not. Max
cropt to the door presently, but as he
looked out he uttered cry, and turned
back to Janet. She hurried to him,
and this was what they saw: a sheer
precipicc dropping from their door into
the turbulent waste OF waters boiling
along the length and breadth OF the
lately smiling landscape of the Divide.
"The bridge is gore, and with it the
ridge has been clean shaven away up tc
our very threshold, Janet, said Max,
awe-stricken.
eyes, the waves and billows of
destruction have gone over us, she
cried with thanksgiving of heart. "Bu
oh, Max, what of the poor people at the
mills and in the villages~
He told her, shivering, how he had
gone to them, leaving her and the little
one to perish. She stood for moment
silent
"You would have perished with us a
the last, tn ugh, my Max" she said
her hands in his, "only God in hi
goodness has left US to each other. lie
us accept His loving kindness as the re
ward of your duty faithfully done
Dairy Schools.